OTTAWA COUNTY, MI – Ottawa County officials are giving a funding boost to a research effort that could help limit seagull activity along county beaches.

Commissioners recently approved spending more than $32,000 to have researchers from Central Michigan University capture and tag ring-neck gulls on county beaches with radio transmitters. The devices would then track the gulls’ movements, a move officials say will help them better understand bird habits and as a result, develop better approaches to keeping gulls away.

“It’s part of our ongoing effort to make sure we maintain our water quality and beach sand quality to the best standard we can,” County Administrator Al Vanderberg said.

Seagulls have been linked to contamination of water and beach sand, including E. coli, according to CMU researchers Elizabeth Alm and Thomas Gehring, who gave an initial presentation of their work at the county’s Water Quality Forum late last year.

“Gulls at Great Lakes beaches impair water quality and are an emerging public health and economic issue for coastal communities,” the researchers wrote in their report.

The CMU researchers studied four areas along Lake Michigan: Kirk Park and Rosy Mound Natural Area, in Grand Haven Township; Grand Haven Beach Association in the city of Grand Haven and North Beach Park in Ferrysburg. As part of their study, they used border collies to see if they could get the gulls to leave.

Funding from the study will not come from general tax dollars, but from a special environmental projects fund established with proceeds from the sale of red pine trees that had been harvested from county parks, Vanderberg said.

A report on the new study is expected at this year’s county Water Quality Forum, Vanderberg said.